binding wounds. The bandages have beauty as well as function. In
the same way that a cure can lead to health, Christ received sinners
in order to heal and strengthen them. In Christ, God took on our
humanness, accommodating himself to our wounds.
Doctors sometimes apply the opposite of our condition--ice on a
burn, moisture on dryness. At other times similar things may be
applied--a round wound gets a round bandage, a long cut gets a long
bandage. The same dressing is not applied to every area of the body.
Similar things fit together.
Now see God's wisdom. Determined to cure us, he applied himself.
He is both the doctor and the medicine. We fell by pride. He applies
humility as the cure. We threw away our immortality in the Garden of
Eden. God uses his mortality to save us. This is the doctor's practice of
contraries. Christ's virtues cure our vices.
We can also see similarities in God's spiritual medicine. As a
human, he freed humans. As one capable of dying, he rescued the dying.
If we thought about it, we could come up with many more
illustrations of Christian medicine working by contrary and similar
properties. The diligent will discover them, but those who must hurry
away to finish something they have started, will not.
Who is Augustine? Augustine of Hippo, Nov. 13, 354 to August 28, 430,
is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic church and the Anglican
Communion. While he predated the reformation by many centuries,
many Protestants, particularly Calvinists, view him as a theological
father to the Reformation particular because of his teachings on
salvation and divine grace.
No comments:
Post a Comment